Maddie Godby, a graduate student in the Population Mental Health & Wellbeing Program at the Colorado School of Public Health, flew to her first Olympic Games this summer knowing full well the month in Japan would be unlike anything the world has seen.
The athletes, including Godby, a track cyclist who races in velodromes, would be competing without in-person friends and family, per COVID-19 precautions, in a country where the majority of the populace stood against the quadrennial event. They would need to suddenly unleash their competitive fire after a year of delays, logistical challenges and other uncertainties as to whether the “2020” Games would even happen.
Maddie Godby is pictured at the Olympics with her brother, Zane Godby, a mechanic for U.S. Cycling. Photos at top and below by Casey Gibson. |
Perhaps not surprisingly, amid all the discombobulation, mental health vaulted to the center of the conversation. The discussion sparked early on, when star U.S. gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of her events because of mental health issues, and it continued throughout the Games.
Here, Godby, who graduated from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s in healthcare science before starting her program at CU Anschutz in fall 2020, speaks candidly about the mental health challenges of balancing an elite athletic career with academics, her aspirations in public health and other aspects of her busy life.
In the following Q&A, the Boulder native talks about having her brother at the Olympics (learn why he was allowed to attend), where she likes to go to rejuvenate (it’s not too far), the training process to get selected to the Olympic team (“It was a very hard three years”) and her favorite color (think Colorado Rockies).